After a lengthy layoff between rounds, the NBA Finals begin on Thursday. It will feature the upstart Indiana Pacers taking on the juggernaut Oklahoma City Thunder. These two teams have taken very different paths to get here.

The Indiana Pacers have been one of the great underdog stories in recent NBA history, making the 2025 NBA Finals with 66-1 odds to win the title at BetMGM heading into the playoffs. They have won a remarkable nine games outright as an underdog and are a very profitable 13-7 against the spread in the postseason.

The NBA Finals were supposed to be a walkover. The Indiana Pacers were staggering +700 underdogs. The only team ever to win the Finals with those odds were the 2004 Detroit Pistons. The Oklahoma City Thunder,